1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to software installation and more specifically to simplifying installation of software modules on heterogeneous remote systems.
2. Related Art
Installation refers to the process of setting up a software module for execution in a digital processing system. Installation typically entails storing the software instructions/data (constituting the software module) in appropriate storage locations and performing any other configurations required to make the instructions/data ready for execution.
Installation may be performed locally (using the same system) or remotely (from another system termed the “installer system”). Remote installation is particularly useful when a software module is required to be installed on multiple systems (termed as “remote systems”). The installation is performed based on a communication path (e.g., using a network) established between the installer system and each remote system.
There are several environments where remote systems are heterogeneous. Heterogeneous systems require the installation actions from the installer systems to be different (either in terms of the actions themselves or in terms of the command syntax/semantics for a given action). Such differences are required, generally due to the interfaces expected by differences in the hardware and/or operating systems of the remotes systems.
Several challenges may be presented due to such differences. For example, different ‘flavors’ of the same software modules may need to be installed to correspond to the operating system and/or hardware of the specific remote system. In addition, the set of actions performed with respect to different types of remote systems may also be different in view of the differences in command syntax/semantics noted above.
In one prior approach, appropriate additional software (such as Cygwin software emulating Unix operating system, Java run time environment etc.) are installed and/or additional configuration is performed on each remote system such that the installer system can use at least substantially similar installation actions when installing on separate remote systems. However, the overhead associated with deploying the additional software on several remote systems, may not be acceptable.
It may be desirable that the installation of a software module on heterogeneous remote systems be simplified.
In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical, functionally similar, and/or structurally similar elements. The drawing in which an element first appears is indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.